He said also to the one who had invited him, ‘When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Jesus is always challenging us as disciples to practice radical inclusivity, but in few places is he as explicit as he is here in today’s Gospel reading from Luke. I try to imagine what it would be like to invite “the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind” to table fellowship in my home when I so often struggle to warmly and authentically extend companionship to my family, friends, and colleagues. Indeed, I so often fail to make peace with so many parts of my own self that the idea of being this open-handed with others, especially those on the margins, seems like an impossibility. God, help me to find you in everything so that I might have the freedom to offer myself to everyone—especially those most in need of your love and mercy.
—Jim Bopp is the Head of School at Creighton Preparatory School, Omaha, NE.
Lord Jesus, sometimes I struggle with how to respond to your call to care for those on the margins. Help me to move past all that stands in the way of truly opening my heart to all those you love. May I look to you as a model of how to include all those I meet. Amen.
—The Jesuit Prayer team
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